He hated his job because he worked for the government. He despises imperialism and wants to quite but has not. This essay is an account of a controversial decision he made while living there. He is called about an elephant that has gone “must” and is loose in the village. “Must” is when male elephant is sexually active and extremely violent, so it is dangerous for it to be around people.
Orwell feels like an outcast rebel, he wants the Burmese to stand up against the British Empire. Young Orwell sets the tone of how he is torn between doing his job and doing what was morally and ethically right. (shooting the elephant or letting it live) 3. Some analogies that Orwell uses are: the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow, grandmotherly. They watched me like a conjurer about to perform a trick.
From the very beginning of Shooting An Elephant, George Orwell demonstrates ambivalence through his affiliations with Imperialist Britain, his sense of self among the Burmese, and his ties to the elephant. In the second paragraph, Orwell says: “All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible.” We learn early in the essay that Orwell hates imperialism and the Burmans, already making him ambivalent. Although Orwell hates being a British official, he has a constant need to feel important and needed by the Burmans. Therefore, he is excited when called to help with a loose elephant rampaging in the bazaar. Throughout the piece, we experience Orwell’s internal conflict between the imperialist police force he is working for, and the rude Burmans people he is forced to deal with on a daily basis.
George was a British sub-divisional police officer in the town of Lower Burma, Moulmein. George was against imperialism; he believed it was an evil thing and the sooner he got rid of his job the better. One day he was asked by the sub-inspector to take care of a crazed elephant at the other end of town. It’s unfortunate that when he got there he decided, by pressure of a group, to shoot the elephant instead of letting it live. I have been in situations such as this and, over time, I have taught myself how to not give into the complications of life.
Orwell’s Persuasive Opinions How far would you go to avoid looking like a fool? Many of us would do a whole lot of things but I don’t think we would go as far as shooting an elephant. George Orwell wrote an essay in 1936 called “Shooting an Elephant,” in this essay through an incident with an elephant that happened to Orwell one day on the job, he tries to convey to his readers that “imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better ” (Orwell). This essay started out in Moulmein, in lower Burma where Orwell was a sub-divisional police officer of the town. Orwell uses the symbolic irony of the situation to compare the elephant to the downfall of imperialism.
1. Compare and contrast the conflicts faced by Orwell in “Shooting an Elephant” to those faced by Gideon in “No Witchcraft for Sale.” To what unique revelation does Orwell’s position as a police officer lead him? How can Gideon’s ultimate decision not to share his knowledge be interpreted as an act of rebellion and an assertion of the dignity and worth of his culture? Answer: Orwell's conflict was in shooting the elephant, and Gideon's was in sharing the medicinal secret that cured Teddy's eyes. Though both characters' conflict was similar in that truly the conflict was in how each of them felt.
These European empires believed it was, “the white man’s burden” to civilize the people they called heathens and savages of these countries. However, as Imperialism was broken down, the question of whether or not European conquerors were ever in control remains. In “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell first reveals his opposition to imperialism. Then, through the parallels between the British Empire and a Burmese elephant and the action of shooting the elephant, Orwell points out the incomplete control of the British Empire over Burma which also represents the breakdown of imperialism. Although the author was working as a police officer for the British Emperor, he strongly opposed the idea of Imperialism.
In the two readings, Journal of the First Voyage to America and Shooting an Elephant, the authors, Christopher Columbus and George Orwell, had two very different views of the inhabitants of the locations they were in with Columbus being in San Salvador and Orwell being in Burma. The cause of the different views could be that where Orwell was he had been living with them and had to deal with all of their insults and criticisms because he was a British policemen who was there to enforce all of the rules established by Britain in the area and this caused many people to fear and despise him because of his job. But, in the location where Columbus was he was just visiting the land and was there to befriend the peoples so that they would have good
Freda Amponsah Professor Insolera English 107B*2 April 3, 2012 Giving Up, Fitting in the Society There are a lot of people who sacrifice their principles and values to be accepted in their community and to gain society’s approval. “Salvation” by Langston Hughes , George Orwell’s in “Shooting an Elephant” and “Once more to a lake.” by E.B. White these deal with the idea of fitting into society in very dissimilar ways. George Orwell explains in “Shooting an Elephant” the fights that he faces trying when to gain the public support and respect when he shoots down in blameless animal and sacrifices what he accept as true. However, he respects the people even though they reject him, Langston Hughes in “Salvation, describes how he was forced
Why don’t you come and be saved? Oh, Lamb of God! Why don’t you come? (180).” In “Shooting an Elephant” Orwell illustrates the peer-pressure put on him by explaining the number of people following him. He first starts by saying: “As I started forward practically the whole population of the quarter flocked out of the houses and followed me (287).” The crowd misunderstood him when he was holding the gun.